8165. 'Were there no graves in Egypt, [since] you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?' means that if damnation was their lot it made no difference whether it came to them through the falsities of molesters or through a state of temptations in which they would go under. This is clear from the meaning of 'graves' as damnation, dealt with in 2916, 5832; from the meaning of 'Egypt' as molestations, dealt with in 7278, for 'the Egyptians' and 'Pharaoh' represent those in the next life who molest by means of falsities, 7097, 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7317; from the meaning of 'dying' too as damnation, dealt with in 5407, 6119, 7494; and from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as a state for undergoing temptations, 8098, and therefore 'dying in the wilderness' means going under in temptation and consequently suffering damnation. From all this it is evident that 'Were there no graves in Egypt, [since] you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?' means that if damnation was their lot it made no difference whether it came to them through the falsities of molesters, thus within the previous state that was theirs, or through temptations in which they would go under, thus within the subsequent state they were entering.
[2] These words, it is self-evident, are words of despair. They are also the kind that are thought by people in a state of despair, which is the final phase of a temptation. At that time they are on a slope so to speak or slipping down to hell. Yet thinking in that way at such times does no harm, and the angels take no notice of it; for each person's power is limited, and when temptation stretches him to the absolute limit of his power he cannot stand up to anything further and starts to slip. At that point however, that is, when he is on the slope and starts to slip, he is raised by the Lord and thereby delivered from despair. More often than not he is then brought into a bright state of hope and the comfort this brings, and also into a state of bliss. The words 'damnation through a state of temptations in which they would go under' are used because people who go under in temptations pass into a state of damnation. For the end in view with temptations is that truths and forms of good, and therefore faith and charity, may be strengthened and bonded together. But that end is achieved only when a person is victorious in temptations; if he goes under truths and forms of good are set aside and falsities and evils are strengthened. Hence those people's state of damnation.
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